Velon video captures the pain of climbing Mont Chery
Alberto Contador fires off a shot in the 2010 race. He would go on to the Tour one month later but would lose in the race in the courts (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Some of the footage is from Koen De Kort’s bike as he fought the 9.7 per cent average gradient. The Giant-Alpecin rider started a minute behind Chris Froome (Team Sky) and had joked about catching the Briton during the short time trial. He failed in his mission, with Froome leading the race for much of the day after opting for an early start time to avoid a risk of rain.
Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) hadn’t raced for close to two months but showed some impressive form and won the time trial to pull on the first leader’s yellow jersey. The Spaniard beat Richie Porte (BMC) by six seconds, with Froome finishing third at 13 seconds.
The 3.9km time trial was short but shaped the overall classification and perhaps eliminated the overall chances of several riders, including Fabio Aru (Astana), who lost 1:08, local hero Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), who lost 52 seconds, and Rohan Dennis (BMC), who finished 1:01 back.
"It was only a four-kilometre prologue, but that was really tough. There were gradients of 20 per cent, and I was running out of legs and just squeezing every bit out for the line," said Froome.
"I'm happy with the numbers and the feelings I had on the bike. I'm in good shape but I've still got some work to do, and we're a month out from the Tour still. I'm glad that's out of the way.
The video also included footage of Pierre Rolland (Cannondale) who is featured as the rider of the day in a new 'MyDay' series from the race.
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